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‘re’-reading the Classics

funKYcat75

funKYcat75

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Thinking about starting to read again. Haven’t finished a book in probably 10 years or so and would like to start a new productive habit in 2020. I was supposed to read a lot in high school and undergrad, but I was an excellent BS-er and group-picker, so I never truly gave the books the attention they deserve.

Where should I start? Nothing written too recently.
 
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cole854

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Actually doing something along the same lines. Starting with bio's along a specific subject matter (sports, politics, music, etc) helps keep the interest level.

I jumped feet first into the Alexander Hamilton bio, specifically because I am going to NYC to see the play in April.
 
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-Mav-

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Kooky Kats said:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest- Ken Kesey
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JumperJack

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Strokin_Bandit said:
Because of times we live in, anything by Orwell would be cool to revisit. Or his mentor, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Those guys were on to something.
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I read 1984 again recently. He was a prophet.

Sagans bio of Lincoln is excellent and the newest John Adams bio by Mcculloch is good.
 
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rudd1

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Favourites in no particular order:

-the stranger, camus
-darkness at noon, koestler
-demian, hesse
-the god that failed, essays by ex-commies(notably andre gide and koestler)
-the trial, kafka(if only to have the ability to use the term "kafkaesque" correctly.)
-house of the dead, dostoevsky
-the great Gatsby, fitzgerald
-homage to catalonia, orwell
-scum of the earth, koestler.
 
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Ryan Lemonds Hair

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I don't read often but Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell was pretty good if you liked the movie by the same name. It is the actual story not the made for Hollywood movie version and it goes into more depth of his Seal training.
 
MdWIldcat55

MdWIldcat55

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For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway.

It can be a tough read because Hemingway seeks to simulate classic Spanish by having the characters speak in dated English - thee and thou, and so on. But it is a great meditation on what used to be seen as the critical human virtues of courage, commitment to a cause, a stoical acceptance of fate. It's also a sound look at the struggle in Spain that preceded the great clash between Fascism and Communism all over the world, with American style Democracy threatened by the excesses of both systems.
 
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812scottj

812scottj

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To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, 1984, The Old Man and the Sea, The Island of Dr Moreau...all great reads!!
 
funKYcat75

funKYcat75

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I read Les Misérables and L’Étranger in French (#humblebrag). Would read Camus again, because I remember very little of it. Les Misérables was a dud (just my opinion, of course) so I’ll pass.

I’d really like to read that Jim Varney book actually. As my other fellow Lexingtonians know, everyone born between 1950 through 1970 claims to have been his best friend, or was in class, or hung out with him.

Leaning toward Count of Monte Cristina to start, then Camus, and then Island of Doctor Moreau. Keep up the discussion though.
 
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rudd1

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MdWIldcat55 said:
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway.

It can be a tough read because Hemingway seeks to simulate classic Spanish by having the characters speak in dated English - thee and thou, and so on. But it is a great meditation on what used to be seen as the critical human virtues of courage, commitment to a cause, a stoical acceptance of fate. It's also a sound look at the struggle in Spain that preceded the great clash between Fascism and Communism all over the world, with American style Democracy threatened by the excesses of both systems.
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-hemmingway is a pretender and a pawn of the soviets (research Joris Ivans(sp))...as it relates to the spanish civil war.

-I agree that the confict is fascinating and was a harbinger of things to come. What makes it great that are good writers that actually participated and were *really* involved (orwell, koestler, dos passos, malreaux et al)...whilst hemmingway was away from the fray being duped(best case for him is that he was misled) into doing agitprop for uncle joe stalin.
 
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KentuckyStout

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OK, everyone has their takes on what classics they actually hated for one reason or another - so I'll throw one of mine in there:

Heart of Darkness

Tedious and boring. No idea why this book is considered great.
 
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funKYcat75

funKYcat75

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CUJO_1970 said:
OK, everyone has their takes on what classics they actually hated for one reason or another - so I'll throw one of mine in there:

Heart of Darkness

Tedious and boring. No idea why this book is considered great.
Click to expand...
One of my ‘reads’ from undergrad. Couldn’t get into it at all. Skimmed and scanned to write what I had to write. Luckily I took that class with a lot of folks that loved to hear themselves talk.
 
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rudd1

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-md, hemmingway was action-adjacent at best...his girlfriend martha gellhorn was actually a little closer to the action by some accounts.

-homage to catalonia was on my list of favs a few posts above yours. Thanks for the rec, though. Scum of the earth was as well...i reccomend you give it a look. Ive read dozens of books on/around the spanish civil war. As i said above...there is no shortage of written material available.

-hemmingway did do pro-soviet propaganda films with dutch filmmaker joris ivans...that is abject fact. If you read my post you will see that i gave the option that he was "duped" as some folks think ivans may have mislead him. Either scenario is plausible.
 
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dgtatu01

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My favorites:
The Jungle
The Count Of Monte Christo
Great Expectations
The Lord Of The Flies
Catch 22

Book I finished but didn't like
Great Gadsby

Books I could not finish
Crime & Punishment
Moby Dick
Brave New World (I loved Orwell but couldnt get into this)
 
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Xception

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George R.R. Martin wrote numerous books about a throne, they say readers cannot stop talking about the ending. You’re welcome
 
Rebelfreedomeagle

Rebelfreedomeagle

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I went on a big classics binge and was surprised by what I liked and what I didn't.
I didn't like Dickens as much after reading that he was pretty much paid to write stories with wealthy people as heroes. That's what the patrons wanted.
I did like Crime and Punishment after reading about the background. Dostoyevsky was the son of a doctor and it's written with medical theory of the time, like the "criminal fever".
Another I didn't expect to like was Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. I had a whole new appreciation as an adult.
I also reread Slaughterhouse Five and ended up reading everything Vonnegut wrote.
 
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